Wot i did on my summer holly dayz

At the start of the year I said I was going to be getting serious about learning to play the guitar properly. A couple of weeks back I took the next step and got myself a guitar teacher.

This has been a very useful step in revealing to me just how little I knew of the basics. Right now he has me working through some very simple stuff in memorizing a single major scale in terms of it's position on the fretboard, constituting notes, intervals, and simple sight reading.

Well simple that stuff may seem to some of you, but it's more than enough to keep me busy. Combine that with a shift in my left hand position, and work on a more consistent picking style, and the sweat just pours off my head in practice sessions, I assure you! I can only be grateful that we're leaving my strumming arm in it's current incorrect position, 'until later...'!!!

It's only when you really try to do things *properly* that you realise just how bad you were at them.

Did I mention that I was really enjoying it? I'm loving it.

As if the 100 degree temperatures and intense concentration weren't enough to get me hot and bothered, I thought I'd turn up the heat a little more with my homework piece for this week - playing around with a melody line over a chord progression that you should recognise.
http://www.le-cafe-metaphor.demon.co.uk/Summertime.mp3

Enjoy the summer while it's here.

very mellow ;o)

*nice*

Whooo! Even just comparing that with other things you've recorded, I hear a striking increase in your confidence. There's some really nice lines in there... wait, why am I suddenly smoking a Gitane...?

That's very nice there Justin. You could also try playing around with the melody line from Van Morissons 'Moondance' over the same chords for a variation.

The two songs share very similar chord structures so can be fitted together nicely. Take the chords from the first line of Summertime (summertime, and the livin' is easy) and use these as the basis for most of Moondance, up to the point 'and the nights magic', at which point you switch to the chords from the second line of Summertime. You'll get the gist of and see what I mean.

Great! I was a little concerned that your enthusiasm for theory would rob something from the _music_ but how wrong was I. Packed full of soul... dripping emotion! Loved it.

Very very impressive.

Thank you.

Going to try that in a minute. Thanks!

its nice, very nice I really dig your playing justin.

Ian number 1.

He's coming along nicely, eh, lads?

Bravo, Justin. There's a lot of good stuff in there - nice note choices, good understanding of the in-betweeny chord structures (and the melodies they imply), good groove, and - as other have said - a looser, more relaxed feel.

Ah. Important to enjoy the learning process it is, gwasshopper.

I love summers in England. Not just summers; summers *here*. Hot but green and verdant...The orchard out back is going *mental* - anyone need any apples?

Steve http://www.fivetrees.com

Justin,

Can I be a real hard-nosed bastard here?

Lose the first 55 seconds of the track. I must admit I first listened to around 30 secs and couldn't understand why you were getting so much praise. A few more congratulatory posts, and I decided to listen again - the whole way through. Wow - chalk and cheese. In the first 55 secs, you sounded like a kid struggling a bit. The second part, though, is what you would expect to hear from a seasoned player.